Communications Sector Conversations

Top 10 Windows Phone 7 Application Design Tips

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:19:10 GMT

This new series on the Windows Phone Developer Blog offers tips with step-by-step advice on common issues that can surface when developing a Windows Phone 7 application. Compiled by the Windows Phone Design team, the series tackles ten key areas with information that can help you avoid design pitfalls and strengthen your application.
With the Windows Phone 7 platform increasing in popularity every day, the number of applications is growing rapidly. These tips can help you make your application function even better, so it will stand out well when you submit it to the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Although some issues are quickly fixed, others are a bit challenging. However, the detailed explanations and illustrations are easy to follow. The series kicks off with a look at how to make your start tiles and splash screens great—so your application makes a good first impression.

The other 9 tips covered in the series are:

1. Make sure your buttons are visible even when the keyboard is displayed.

2. Manage themes on WP7. Build your application to respect system color changes.

3. Make sure your finger can hit the target and text is legible.

4. Give feedback on touch and progress within your UI.

5. Be very careful when embedding web content.

6. Place your buttons well... Flying buttons, home buttons, and back buttons... Oh my!

7. Right layout alignment and information hierarchy are key.

8. Use our common controls, and use them right.

9. Understand Pivots and Panoramic views.

Get all 10 tips, and check out the blog weekly for new postings.

Top 7 Items to Check for WP7 Certification

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 01:14:56 GMT

From the Windows Phone Marketplace team…Top seven items to check in order to pass certification.

1. Technical Support Information. Include technical support contact information, such as an email address or URL, within the application along with the application version number.

2. Content Validation. Be sure that application visual elements are visible and legible in both Windows Phone 7 light and dark themes. The application description, the UI text, and media within the application must be in the corresponding target language the XAP supports.

3. Application Termination. Applications must provide a user-friendly error message when an application terminates unexpectedly.

4. Application Screenshot. Screenshots must not include any emulator chrome, be graphically enhanced, or use transparent PNG image files.

5. Windows Phone Marketplace Iconography. Icons must closely match the icon provided in the XAP package.

6. Declaring Application Capabilities. Use the method documented on MSDN regarding How to: Use the Windows Phone Capability Detection Tool. Pay close attention when referencing the WebBrowser control and be sure to access it from code-behind.

7. Application Localization. Follow globalization and localization best practices on MSDN and test applications using multiple regional and language settings

WP7 Wireframe Templates for Illustrator

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:02:45 GMT

These are unofficial Adobe Illustrator templates for building Windows Phone 7 wireframes created by Clarity Consulting. Read more about them and download here:

http://blogs.claritycon.com/windowsphone7/2011/01/12/wicked-wireframes-wp7-vector-ux-kit-3/

Thanks for sharing!

Build a Better Windows Phone 7 UI (and save time)

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:49:06 GMT

For Silverlight developers, Expression Blend is old news, however, for most developers Expression Blend is a foreign tool. If you are an iPhone or Android developer, you are probably very focused on getting your arms around Visual Studio 2010 and may not know that much about Expression Blend.

I can tell you flat-out that Expression Blend WILL make your life easier as a Windows Phone 7 developer. By far, the best way to learn Blend is to watch someone use it, either in person or via a screencast or webcast because Blend is very visually oriented. Up on the Design site off of Microsoft.com there is an incredible amount of content available on design and Expression Blend at this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/school/tutorials.aspx

Spend time with this training and you will absolutely save time in the long run and may even end up with an improved User Experience in your Windows Phone 7 applications:-)

Windows Phone site for iPhone Developers

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:35:37 GMT

Looking for Windows Phone 7 information to help you port over your iPhone application and expand to a growing market? Check out the Windows Phone 7 Interoperability site located here:

http://windowsphone.interoperabilitybridges.com/

The Windows Phone Interoperability site focuses on helping developers who have been creating phone applications on various platforms ramp up quickly on the Windows Phone 7 platform. The goal is to help them leverage existing skills, and provide recipes to successfully design and build applications for the Window Phone. Here is an example of some of the content available:

Windows Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Application Developers

Chapter 1: Windows Phone 7 Platform introduced to iPhone application developers

Chapter 2: User Interface Guidelines

Chapters on the way….

Chapter 3: Developer and designer tools introduced to iPhone application developers
Chapter 4: C# programming introduced to Objective-C programmers
Chapter 5: Application Lifecycle differences between Windows Phone 7 and the iPhone
Chapter 6: Windows Phone 7 Notification Service introduced to iPhone application developers

Next Chapters [To be defined] could cover:
Networking, Web services, Data binding, Database and data management

Interview with Ed Schmit from at&t

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:25:00 GMT

I had the opportunity to interview Ed Schmit while at DevConnections 2010 as part of Bytes by MSDN. Ed Schmit is a Director with the AT&T Developer Program, where his mission is to provide support and guidance for the developer community. He has been with AT&T for five years.

Here is a link to the full interview:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg547370.aspx

Windows Phone 7 Dev Info for iPhone Developers

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:37:00 GMT

If you are an iPhone developer looking for content tailored to you for Windows Phone 7, Jesse Liberty’s blog is a great place to start. He has many posts and podcasts covering key Windows Phone 7 topics. Here is a search link that brings up the iPhone related content----there are multiple pages available:

http://jesseliberty.com/page/2/?s=iphone

Interview with Brandon Watson

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:30:00 GMT

I had the opportunity to interview Brandon Watson while at DevConnections 2010 as part of Bytes by MSDN. Brandon Watson serves as a director responsible for the developer experience of Windows® Phone 7. His responsibilities include managing the developer application platform and showcase application programs, developer marketing, and field and sales readiness for developer engagements.

Here is a link to the full interview:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg467339.aspx

Professional Quality Tools for WP7 Developers–Limited Time Offer

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:21:00 GMT

The Windows Phone 7 product team announced a partnership with PreEmptive Solutions to provide their Dotfuscator application, which includes Runtime Intelligence, for free, to all Windows Phone 7 developers from today through March 31, 2011.

During this offer period, developers will have access to Dotfuscator for Windows Phone. This will allow developers to instrument their code, provide customer insight into their application usage, and gain access to app analytics via the Runtime Intelligence web service. As an added bonus, anyone who wishes to use Dotfuscator to obfuscate their XAPs has access to that functionality as well.

Here are some ways in which you might use Dotfuscator for Windows Phone:

How many people have installed my app?– With this solution, and using the ANID as a hash key, you can instrument you app and track the number of unique LiveIDs which have installed your application.
How often is my app run?– Did you want to know the run time of your app? What about how long specific functions take to run? All of that data can be collected by Dotfuscator.
What features are customers using the most?– With your application properly instrumented, you will be able to determine where your customers are spending their time, for how long, and even at what time of day if you want.
What’s the performance of my app on customers’ handsets?– Are you concerned about how your app is performing in the field? With instrumentation, you can analyze how the app performs on different handset models on different networks.

To get started, simply visit PreEmptive’s site http://www.preemptive.com/windowsphone7.html, get a Runtime Intelligence account, and download the code. If you want to see a nice, quick tutorial, watch this video. Also you can see a detailed discussion about Dotfuscator, and interview with PreEmptive's CTO, in the current edition of Inside Windows Phone, at Channel 9.

Presenting at DevConnections 2010

Rob Cameron _XBOX — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:57:00 GMT

If you are attending DevConnections 2010, please come check out my session. My session is VMP02 – Building Integrated Mobile Apps with WP7 Hardware And Services. I present Tuesday November 2nd at 11:30am in MANDALAY BAY L. I hope to see you there!